


Before the Sun Rises

by Featherstorm77



Category: Warrior Cats - Fandom
Genre: One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 14:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7896649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Featherstorm77/pseuds/Featherstorm77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fernbreeze is determined to help her Clan.</p><p>There's more to it than she thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Sun Rises

As the sun sets, a blur of gray motion dartes over a rise, dodging trees and boulders alike. Each time the cat turns, she skids on the wet leaves that cover the forest floor, still orange from falling and damp from the evening dew.

The light starts to die slowly, though it still cuts through the leaves and branches and trunks as she leaps a stream, hardly even pausing to check her balance. The colourful sky is reflected on the rippling surface and all the leaves, bringing new light to them.

She is a small thing with a plain dusky gray coat. There isn't much to notice about her except her sharp green eyes, which are spread wide in panic.

Her breathing is ragged and uneven, dragging in with each breath the strong scent of damp bark and soggy leaves that she loathes so much into her nose. She wants to stop and rest her aching lungs, but no, she can't. What if she is caught? What she meddled in had hardly been worth excusing. If she could just...make it to the gathering! Then she would be able to hide with her Clan mates.

She could feel the strength draining from her paws, and risked a glance backwards. No one. Before her dash through the forest, there were sounds behind her that told her her pursuers were right behind her.

Now, as she trudges onwards, trying to regain enough energy to run again, she reflects on what got her in such a dreadful situation in the first place.

It all started when she was summoned to the leader, Rushstar's, den. She politely obliged.

\---

She had always been the type to pride herself on being in the background, but always listening, always attentive, and it wasn’t exactly hard for her. She liked to be the cat that spoke up all of a sudden but had found an elaborate solution to a problem. So when Rushstar explained his problem, she had an urge to help him. He asked because he knew she was skilled at solving tricky problems, and she was honoured.

He leaned in closely, blue eyes showing his concern as he spoke. "I've been noticing these...exchanges between cats that really shouldn't know each other very well." His tone betrayed his worry, even though the words were spoken in a whisper. Even more obviously, he glanced around nervously after he had spoken, looking like he was afraid someone else was listening.

"I've never once doubted you, Fernbreeze. And I know you have a sharp mind. Take time to think it over. I'll tell you if there's anything else I learn."

She walked out with a thoughtful expression on her face.

\---

For the next half moon, she thought as she did mindless activities, like swimming in the river, or collecting reeds for nests, or helping the queens look after their kits.

It was always there, nagging in the back of her mind.

Was Rushstar just being overcautious?

He wasn't the sort to do that, though. She had known him almost all her life.

If he wasn't wrong, then what could it be?

Some sort of rebellion within the Clans?

A few cats that were in relationships they weren't supposed to be, all at the same time?

These answers seemed too simple, and she urged her sharp mind to think of better ones. It must be something, because there was so much secrecy.

When she went to the gathering next, and was unobnoxiously looking for the hints Rushstar claimed, she saw them. Cats were passing by one another and trading short, decisive nods, as if they were in a battle and had to be silent.

Her eyes narrowed when she saw this.

And Rushstar's eyes narrowed when he saw something else.

\---

He was pacing his den this time, blue eyes showing his confusion.

She knew he wasn't the type to get angry easily, and it soothed her that he wasn't yet. That meant it couldn't be too bad, but enough to make him agitated.

She wasn't good at comforting fiery cats. Rushstar was, with his clear blue eyes and simple, but powerful, phrases. She was thoughtful, always, she knew, in every aspect, but she couldn't cool tempers. Fear and pain, she could murmur away.

When Rushstar finally spoke, it was quietly. "I saw the WindClan and ThunderClan leaders exchanging glances with each other in _that way_ after the reports. It was just me. Smokestar and Flightstar had left. I was about to jump off when I saw it. They basically followed Swiftcurrent out of the hollow with their eyes. It was creepy."

"Humm," she replied.

Swiftcurrent was a queen. She had announced at the gathering that she was expecting.

\---

And now the gray she-cat was back on the move, trying and failing to get a hold on the treacherous slippery leaves in ThunderClan's territory. Her stocky build and thick coat were not made for the forest.

The forest that was starting to become dim with shadows, making things that were not really there seem to be there and things that were there seem to not really be there. Still, she pushed forwards, even through the most difficult of bushes.

She kept getting thorns snagged in her fur, adding to the pain in her limbs from running so hard.

\---

 _"You-!"_ her Clan mate snarled. Afraid of Nightrain for the first time in her life, the gray cat watched as he stalked towards the pale queen. "How dare you defy us! Hiding those kits! I'll rip your throat out!"

A low growl escaped her throat. She had been dead silent and holding her chin high until he was nose-to-nose with her. Now she took a defensive stance and started to screech what all her other restrained Clan mates were thinking. "Liar! Coward! Code-breaker! I'll die at your paws before I _ever_ tell you where my kits are!"

He let out a hiss. It looked like it was going to come to a battle, but the gray she-cat stepped forward before it could. She wasn't seen as a threat, so she wasn't pinned down like her other remaining Clanmates.

"No, Nightrain, it was me. I hid the kits. Swiftcurrent knows I did it, but I didn't share with her where they were." Her voice was icy calm.

This had been her fault.

Her missplay in the delicate game of secrets.

She had unearthed too much, and she was willing to pay.

She was glad Rushstar wasn't there to see her turn tail and run as she lead the traitors away from their own Clan mates, her preciously brave sister, and towards her.

\---

She was really running from ThunderClan cats now.

They could catch her easily, and she knew she was no good at fighting.

She would be dead.

In her curiosity, she had found that Nightrain and the others had no mercy. They would kill to meet their needs.

Now she knew they would just kill her out of spite, for meddling with everything.

That is what pushes her forward, forward to where it all began.

The gathering.

Had she not meddled, what fate would her Clanmates have met? she wonders.

One life is worth many, isn't it? When they discover what she did, it would be too late for them. They were already ruined.

That is the thought that keeps a knowing smirk on her face even as she veers away and towards the snake rocks at the last second, as she waits only mere moments for the ThunderClan cats to catch up to her slow pace.

Avoiding her instincts is what saves her Clan. All of the Clans.

And that is how a medicine cat dies at the paws of a traitor, all for the sake of healing her Clan before the sun rises.


End file.
